05x02 - Muck Diving in Florida & Iceland: The World's Clearest Water

[bunniefuu]

- [Announcer] This time on "Blue World",

Jonathan dives into two very
contrasting environments.

The epic beauty of Iceland is the backdrop

for an incredible dive into
a nice cold underwater world

that lies between continental plates.

It's a chance to experience
the clearest water in the world

and an ultimate adventure that should be

on every diver's bucket list.

But first, a completely
different kind of expedition

to waters not so clear
and certainly much warmer.

It's called muck diving
under a bridge in Florida

where the aquatic life
is odd and approachable.

[upbeat music]

Meet Jonathan Bird,

one of the world's top underwater
nature cinematographers.

Traveling the world on assignment

for all the major networks,

he is an Emmy Award-winning authority

on the underwater world.

In freshwater or salt,
reefs, wrecks or caves

Jonathan documents the
world beneath the waves.

Welcome to the "Blue World".

[shark thuds]
[upbeat music fades]

- [Jonathan] What if I
told you that you could see

an unbelievable array of bizarre sea life

under a busy bridge in Florida?

Everything from seahorses
to eels to octopuses

and even rare creatures
that I've never seen before

all in one dive,

proving that this next
adventure is certainly

a strange departure from
conventional diving.

[calm music]

For most divers, the best
diving involves warm clear water

and lots of tropical fish,

so coral reefs are the most
popular dive destinations.

But as divers gain more experience,

they seek out new and
different diving environments

like shark diving,

or cave diving,

and everything in between.

One of these environments is muck diving.

Though it sounds sort of mucky,

muck dives don't generally
involve any actual muck.

Usually, they are just dives
with a sandy or silty bottom

where divers experience
a world of odd sea life

found nowhere else.

[bright music]

While technically muck diving can be done

just about anywhere
there's a silty, sandy,

or a muddy sea floor, certain
places around the world

have developed quite a
reputation for good muck dives

with lots of critters, and
this is one such place:

the Blue Heron Bridge in
Riviera Beach, Florida.

This may not look like
much of a dive site,

but this bridge is actually world-famous

for the stunning diversity
of exotic creatures

that inhabit the shallow water

just below the traffic zooming by.

For this dive, I'll definitely
need some local knowledge,

so I've met up with an expert
from Force-E Scuba Center,

Jeff Nelson, to guide me
into the depths of muck.

And it starts out in a parking lot.

It's still light as we sink down into

only two meters of water and
start looking for critters.

Jeff has promised me one of
the hardest fish to film:

a jawfish with eggs.

Our first discovery? A seahorse.

In most places, seahorses
are not only hard to find,

but frustratingly uncooperative.

I think this guy has seen enough cameras

that he knows if he poses
for a minute or two,

I'll go away and leave him alone.

A puffer is attracted to my lights

and comes over for a look.

Nearby, the fastest
sea star I've ever seen

racing across the sand,

and then another
cooperative seahorse using

its prehensile tail to
grip an old piece of rope.

Without Jeff to point
out these little guys,

I would probably swim right by them

and not even see them.

With the seahorses in the
bag, it's time to move on.

Jeff knows where to find a small octopus.

It dives into its home when I approach.

But if there is one thing about
Octopods, they are curious.

Staring at its reflection
in the lens of my camera,

it soon comes out to investigate.

First, a quick touch
of the camera housing.

I stick my finger around into the shot

to give the octopus some scale.

You can see that this
is a very small octopus,

but nobody told her that.

She grabs my finger with her suckers

and tries to pull me into her den.

If you ever have the opportunity

to arm wrestle with an octopus,

you will find they are amazingly strong,

and the suction cups
feel so weird on my skin.

[bright music]

While hunting for the jawfish,

we come across a super
rare and weird fish.

This little guy is a batfish.

It walks along the bottom on legs

that have evolved from pelvic fins,

and just over its mouth

a retractable lure used to fish for prey.

Its gill openings are hidden
behind its pectoral fins,

so the prey won't see it breathing.

When it decides to swim,
you can tell that this fish

isn't really designed to swim very well.

Towards the end of the dive,

Jeff finds me the elusive
jawfish with eggs,

but I blow it by moving in too close

and scaring the little fish.

He won't come out

and my lights are probably
frightening him too.

So I give up, but don't
worry, I have a plan.

Early the next morning,
we are back at the bridge

for the next slack tide.

So before the sun is
even up, cameraman Todd

and I are gearing up with Jeff.

This time I really hope
we can film that jawfish.

We drop into the shallow
water and start making our way

over to the jawfish's burrow.

Along the way, I am
seduced by another octopus.

Ask any diver. Octopods are too cool.

You just have to stop and
watch them when you find one.

This one's a little
bigger than the other one.

Cameraman Todd and I take
turns getting some shots

and waiting for the octopus
to do something interesting

besides just stare at us.

[calm music]

I stick my hand out to see if I can rouse

the animal's curiosity.

She's not going for it.

Fortunately, Jeff teaches me a better way:

make my hand look like
an octopus on the sand,

and it works.

With a couple suction cups,
she tries to take me home.

[pleasant music]

That was really fun,

but my mission is to find
the jawfish, so we move on.

There he is, the elusive jawfish,

but this time I'm going to
work my way closer very slowly

so I don't spook him.

Oh, no, I scared him again.

Oh, wait a minute. He's coming back up.

How do I know it's a he?
The eggs give him away.

When it comes to jawfish,
the male guards the eggs

in a very unlikely place: his mouth!

Jawfish are mouth brooders,

meaning that once the male
has fertilized the eggs,

he takes them from the
female and keeps them safe

in his mouth for about two
weeks until they hatch.

During that time, Dad can't eat anything.

The eggs are transparent.

You can see the little
eyeballs of each baby jawfish

inside the eggs.

Every once in a while, he
has to aerate the eggs.

To do that, he spits the eggs out,

and then sucks them back in.

He does this every minute
or two for a couple weeks.

With my mission complete, we
head back towards the beach

past the concrete columns of the bridge.

I come across a snake eel out
early looking for breakfast.

The snake eel, which
is an eel, not a snake,

pokes its head into holes,
looking for small fish

and invertebrates to eat.

[calm music]

This one caught a small crab.

By the time we finished the dive,

the sun is up in Riviera Beach.

As Jeff and I emerged from the ocean,

I can't believe the incredible amount

of eclectic sea life I've experienced

on such a shallow dive in
the most unlikely spot.

- Great dive.
- This was truly

an amazing experience.

On my trip to the Blue Heron Bridge,

I only had time for a couple dives,

but still I saw a huge variety of animals

and I know I barely scratched the surface.

The batfish, sea horses,
octopods, and jawfish

are rare animals that are
not easy to find anywhere,

yet we saw them here.

Needless to say, I'll be back for more.

- [Announcer] Don't go away.

Jonathan takes us underwater to

the clearest water in the world.

- I'm heading to one of the world's

most exciting dive spots,
located within one of Earth's

most awesome environments: Iceland.

Iceland itself is a beautiful

and sparsely populated country
full of natural wonders.

It has huge glaciers,

and those glaciers give birth to icebergs

which float away into
the North Atlantic Ocean.

But even though it's called Iceland,

it's not all ice by any
means, at least in the summer.

There aren't many trees,

but the landscape features
rolling green, grassy hills.

[joyful music]
[sheep bleat]

Summer melt water feeds
scores of rivers and streams.

Some are crystal clear.

Others are filled with minerals,

making them milky white.

And there are waterfalls,

I mean, a lot of massive waterfalls.

Gullfoss is one of Iceland's largest.

[water splashing]

But I'm here for a unique
dive in what's been heralded

as the clearest water in the world.

Of course, scuba divers crave clear water.

Good visibility makes
diving more like flying:

being able to see your
surroundings from above.

And, of course, we all
feel safer when we can see

what may be lurking in the depths.

Where I come from, we
consider ourselves lucky

to get 10 meters of visibility.

Sometimes in New England,
it's not even that good:

more like three meters.

You can barely see anything until

you're right on top of it.

Plankton makes this
water extremely fertile,

but you can't see through it very well.

In the tropics, water has less plankton

and it's often quite a bit clearer.

It's not unusual to have 30 meters,

sometimes even 50 meters of
visibility, in the tropics.

At the massive neutral
buoyancy lab in Houston,

a huge indoor swimming pool
where astronauts are trained,

I've experienced visibility
of at least 100 meters.

The water is so clear it's
like it's not there at all.

Is there any place in the world

with naturally occurring
clarity like this?

That's why I've come to Iceland
to a place called Silfra.

Iceland is smack dab in the middle of the

Mid-Atlantic Ridge where two
large tectonic plates meet.

Lava coming out from between
these plates at a hotspot

created Iceland about

But since those tectonic
plates are still moving,

Iceland has cracks down the middle

and occasional earthquakes as a result.

This is one of the few places in the world

where you can actually see the crack

between two tectonic plates.

Silfra is one of those cracks.

It's filled with spring
water that percolates

up through the ground
from distant glaciers,

so it's clear and it's cold.

Until recently, the only divers
who came here were animals,

but Silfra has changed all that.

Human divers now come
from around the world

to experience the amazing
visibility in this tiny dive site

just a few meters wide and
a few hundred meters long.

My adventure begins in downtown Reykjavik,

Iceland's capital city, where
I sign up at Dive Iceland

for one of their
all-inclusive Silfra dives.

The next morning at the
crack of dawn, my team and I

meet up with our dive master, Jose Soroa,

who gives us a basic
introduction to the area

and how we will conduct the dive.

We take a walk all the
way around the site.

[calm music]

Diving here is not without difficulty.

I'll need a dry suit to
stay warm in the water,

which is barely above freezing.

Since most people don't go to
Iceland specifically to dive,

they often don't bring any dive gear.

Dive Iceland supplies everything you need,

even the dry suit.

Our team has decided to try their gear

for the full experience.

After we have our suits on,

I have to carry my camera all
the way from the parking lot

to the entry point.

[upbeat music]

They could have put the
parking lot a little closer.

It takes us a few more minutes to get

the rest of the gear on,

and then we shuffle over to the entry.

Fortunately, the entry is easy.

There's a nice staircase
right down to the water.

Jose hands me my camera and
I sink into clear cold water.

My first view under the
surface blows my mind.

I can see all the way down
to the end of the crack

where it takes a turn.

I have no idea how far that is.

Once everyone is ready, we submerge.

Then, Jose leads the way downstream.

There's a gentle current in
Silfra from the spring opening

all the way down to a
lake, brave, clear water.

[calm music]

The incredible visibility
is no exaggeration.

This is the clearest water I
have ever seen in sunlight.

The straight sections of
Silfra aren't even long enough

to test the full visibility,

but it's easily a hundred meters.

We swim for a few minutes
through a narrow crack,

which is at least 20 meters deep.

There's nothing to see down there,

so we stay pretty shallow where
the marginal morning light

is a little better.

Then, we have to cross a
shallow area to keep going

in places it's only a meter deep.

I have no idea where we're
heading, but I follow Jose

because he's done this
dive several hundred times.

In this shallow water,
strands of green algae thrive

on the ample summer sunlight.

After passing through the shallow section,

we head into another deep crack.

Now that the initial
excitement is worn off,

I'm noticing the water temperature,

which is only 2 degrees
Celsius, barely above freezing.

My face is completely numb.

This water is nearly as cold
as the water in Antarctica.

[peaceful music]

I'm not going to let the cold keep me

from having some fun though.

There might not be much to see,

but I can always use some nice clear water

to practice blowing bubble rings;

but it's not easy with a
tight hood and numb lips.

Everyone is getting pretty
cold, so we continue on.

If we want to get out of this water,

we need to make it to the exit point;

so we have some more swimming to do.

At the end of the second
section of deep water,

there's a wonderful sandy slope

leading back to the shallows.

We swim up it expecting
the water to get warmer

as we swim towards the sun.

But alas, there's no thermocline.

It's just as cold at the top.

We emerge into what looks like a pond.

The pond is actually an
inlet from a huge lake.

Once the water goes out into the lake,

it loses its clarity.

But here in this pond-like section,

we get our chance to see
a long way underwater

in a straight line.

[serene music]

Finally, we can see the steps
for the exit and we swim over

with our fingers and toes totally numb.

I have one last look at
the amazing visibility

and climb out.

Woo! That was great!

Oh, but man, is it cold! Whoo!

I can't feel my thumbs.

So I traveled all the way to Iceland

to dive in a crack in the ground

to see some rocks and
algae, this much is true,

but I had to see for myself the spectacle

of such clear water.

The water at Silfra
comes out of the ground

as the purest glacial meltwater

with no plankton to reduce its clarity.

For a few hundred meters,
it travels down the crack

between the tectonic plates towards a lake

where it will mix with lake water.

For that short distance,
divers have the chance

to experience something like flying

in water so clear it's like air:

an experience that I will always remember.

[lively music]

[gentle music]